Dark spots? The sun is not the only cause.

Bergamot oil in perfumes can make your skin sensitive to the sun’s rays.

Dark spots can develop when skin is exposed to irritants in the air.

Scratching mosquito bites and pimples can cause scars and marks.

Birth control pills make your body to produce hormones that cause hyperpigmentation.

Spot some dark spots on your face? Well, you can blame the sun, but it’s not the only culprit. In this article, experts from The Pond’s Institute shed light on five other factors that can cause dark spots on your face.

1. Hormonal changes

As you go through puberty, hormonal changes in the body can trigger acne. Severe acne can result in scars and marks that lead to dark spots.

2. Mixing perfume and sunshine

Many perfumes contain photosensitizers that make your skin sensitive to the sun’s rays, and promote pigmentation. This condition is known as ‘Berlock Dermatitis’ and develops when your skin is exposed to perfume and then, to sunlight. It has been linked to bergamot oil, which unfortunately, is present in one out of every three perfumes in the world.

3. Pollution

In a bustling metropolis, your skin is exposed to a lot more pollutants in the air. To reverse the damage wrought by pollution and aggressors going into your skin, your cells produce antioxidants and excess melanin. Melanin inside your skin leads to the formation of dark spots on the outside of your skin. Hence, pollution would play as an accomplice to sunlight in causing dark spots.

4. Itching to scratch? Don’t.

Suppress your instinct to scratch or pop pimples or insect bites. Doing so can irritate your skin, triggering defence mechanism that induces melanin production. Yes, scratching a mosquito bite can also turn into a dark spot. These blemishes usually fade in about three months. But if you expose them to the sun without protection, the healing period could lengthen to as long as two years.

5. Birth control pills

Birth control pills trigger hormones in your body that are responsible for hyperpigmentation, or the dark spots that appear on your skin.

Avoiding these five causes could reduce the appearance of dark spots on your face. But of course, that’s only half the battle won.